July 31, 2017

What does Utah have to do with NM’s national monuments?

During U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s recent visit to New Mexico, most of his attention focused on Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument. The secretary spent two days in southern New Mexico, viewing the monument by helicopter and on foot and meeting with people and groups in closed settings.

That monument, designated in 2014 by President Barack Obama, lies within Rep. Steve Pearce’s congressional district, and the Republican has long opposed the monument’s size. It’s possible, if not likely, that Zinke will recommend changes to the monument, despite widespread support from southern New Mexico’s elected leaders, businesses and residents.

For now, many think the boundaries of Rio Grande del Norte National Monument may be safe.

That monument’s designation in 2012 received widespread support from groups across northern New Mexico, including local hikers, hunters tribes, Land Grant communities, government officials and business leaders.

https://robbishop.house.gov

Utah Rep. Rob Bishop speaking at an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) summit in 2012, the same year he spoke out in opposition to New Mexico’s Rio Grande del Norte National Monument

It did, however, receive some criticism from outside the state—from a congressman in fellow Four Corners state Utah.

In 2012, shortly after then-Interior Secretary Ken Salazar held a public meeting in Taos about the monument, Utah Rep. Rob Bishop condemned the designation. The Republican cited a lack of “real public input” and argued Antiquities Act designations were a way to “lock up federal land and resources behind Congress’ back.” He later introduced a bill to limit presidential authority to designate national monuments under the Antiquities Act.

Related

More About

Walk around the Capitol, and much of the talk is about an oil boom that is buoying the state's finances, providing more money for schools and whatever else. But for an hour on Thursday, a climate scientist urged one committee of legislators to look past all of that.

State Rep. Bobby Gonzales shook his head from side to side after listening to all the suggestions about how to meet a judge's order to provide more resources to New Mexico children who, in the court's view, are not receiving a good public education. "About 15 different ideas," the Democrat from Taos said following a hearing on the topic last week in the House Appropriations and Finance Committee.

Walk around the Capitol, and much of the talk is about an oil boom that is buoying the state's finances, providing more money for schools and whatever else. But for an hour on Thursday, a climate scientist urged one committee of legislators to look past all of that.

About 739,000 acres of public lands in New Mexico became a big news story this year. At the end of April, President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review a number of national monument designations, including two in New Mexico, made under the Antiquities Act since 1996.

State Rep. Bobby Gonzales shook his head from side to side after listening to all the suggestions about how to meet a judge's order to provide more resources to New Mexico children who, in the court's view, are not receiving a good public education.